


Fictober 20 Ficlets

by Fordanoia



Series: All My Fictobers/Writetobers [5]
Category: Gravity Falls, Original Work
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons References, Gen, Kid Stan Twins, Teenage Stan Twins, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26766103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fordanoia/pseuds/Fordanoia
Summary: The accumulation of all the standalone fics I did for Fictober 2020. Almost entirely comprised of Gravity Falls, specifically to do with either one or both of the Stan Twins.Tags at the beginning of each chapter.(Coming back to edit for organization later)
Relationships: Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Ford Pines
Series: All My Fictobers/Writetobers [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845034
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	1. Critical Failure [Young Stan Twins]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Critical Failure  
> Day 1. “no, come back!”  
> The Stan Twins as teens attempt to play DDamD.

Stan snickered as he recognized the box from across lunch tables where the nerds at school played and promptly snickered. “You wanna play the nerd math game with me?”

“It’s not a nerd math game.” Ford argued back. “It’s an intense and story driven role playing game with statistical analysis of battle strategies and-” He stopped at a snicker from Stan that had slipped out and scowled. “You know what- nevermind. Forget I asked.” He turned with the box in his arms and walked away.

“Wait!” Stan pushed down the smile from his face because in all honesty, he still thought it was funny. “No, come back!” He said, getting up when Ford didn’t even as much as pause.

Stan caught Ford by the shoulder and pulled him back. “Come on, Sixer.” A snicker slipped out. “Look, look, you haven’t even showed me how to play or nothing.”

Ford pulled against his grip, eventually breaking free. “You obviously don’t want to play it.” He said.

“I never said I didn’t want to play it!”

“You laughed at it!”

“Yeah because I don’t get why you asked  _ me  _ to play.” Stan said. “I would have failed math if we didn’t sit beside each other. I’m not going to be good at playing with math.”

Ford finally eased up a bit, his mood coming back just as easily as it’d gone, no harm done. “It’s a lot of fun.” He said, turning the box back around so Stan could see. “Well- it sounds like a lot of fun.”

“I always just hear them saying numbers.” Stan said.

“It’s all the stuff between the numbers though!”

“The numbers are the hard part to get past for me...” He responded with a shrug, then- “Well- I mean hey, how hard could it be, right?”

Ford smiled. “It’s not that hard at all! Once you make your character you’ve basically gotten through the majority of the math. I made mine during biology.”

Stan smiled back, willing to give it a shot. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

* * *

It was that bad. 

Stan looked down at the paper overfilled with numbers that mixed around, a pencil in his hand. “Uh, so... my armor hit points... are...?”

“It’s Armor Class. It’s ten plus your Dexterity score then added on depending on the armor you’re wearing, leather is another one, leather studded is two-” Ford continued, explaining, and for maybe hundredth time Stan was lost. Again.

The two of them were in their bedroom, papers and dice scattered around where Ford sat as Stan laid over top of his own character sheet.

Stan hid his frown down at the paper with a hand at the top of his head so Ford couldn’t see his face. A peek up showed Ford with sets of numbers on a blank sheet of paper with scribbles of names on top of them - he was making the whole ‘dungeon.’

The next hour it didn’t get any better and Stan stumbled through trying to understand even just a little bit about it, getting more and more downtrodden until eventually he just couldn’t take feeling this stupid anymore. 

After two hours of Ford setting up the game, however he did it, and Stan failing to understand how to play - they’d since been playing for almost another hour, with every step of the way Stan having to ask what something meant and how he was supposed to do it.

Stan let the frustration wrinkled paper fall to the floor, finally.

Ford looked at him questioningly. “Stan?”

“Look, Ford, I know you think this is really fun, but it’s just a bunch of math.” He said, with a shrug. “Look, I’m just more a punching things in real life kind of guy! Not a punching thing with numbers.” 

“You didn’t even get out of the prison cell though...” Ford said.

“Ha, well if it was real I would have already gotten out of it.” Stan joked. “Look, it’s just a nerd game, that’s all there is to it.”

Ford frowned. “Right...”

Stan quickly went to cheer him up. “Hey, look, it’s not a bad thing. You can still play it by yourself.” He gestured at the sheets and sheets of paper that Ford had managed to produce. “Heck, look at everything you already did. You’re already set up. I’m not spending  _ my _ time playing with math though.”

After a moment, Ford smiled back. “Yeah, well - it was worth a shot.” He started to gather up the papers then. “Hey, do you want to go to the beach?”

Stan instantly felt lighter, the oppressing weight of math off his shoulders for sure. “Yeah! Hell yeah, that sounds great right now. I’m tired of sitting in here.” He hesitated though. “Uh, wait- don’t you want to finish your game? I can do whatever while you play then we could go out.”

“No. I’ll play later.” He said, shutting the lid on the box and getting up, slipping his shoes on. “Come on! I’ll race you to the front door.”

“You’re on!” He grinned back, as Ford wasted no time in booking it. “Wh- Hey, no!” Stan ran over to his own shoes, putting them on as fast as he could. “Hey!” 

“Looks like I’m winning!” Ford shouted smugly back.

Stan ran after Ford, quickly trying to push ahead before Ford could win with his head start.


	2. Heist or Bust [Dipper & Family]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heist or Bust  
> Day 2. “that’s the easy part”  
> Dipper and family on a local heist.

Snow landed softly in the town square filled with people, celebrating the Anti-Harvest. It was Gravity Falls’ winter holiday centered around ‘attacking the ground for not providing’ which Dipper would have guessed was started by Quentin Trembley. 

“Pig One has landed, I repeat, Pig One has landed.” Mabel’s voice came over the comms line.

Dipper peeked over the railing of the museum to see a distant pink blurr and not so distant shouts of surprise.

“Boom!!” Mabel shouted triumphantly across the line.

“That’s your cue, kid.” Stan’s voice came next. Then a begrudging. “Err, ‘Blue Falcon.’ Over.”

Dipper sweatily looked at the museum which normally didn’t have security, but did now because of him. He pulled at his winter jacket, nervously and stepped backwards as people crowded forwards to the commotion. 

“Copy that.” Dipper said, running around to the side of the building and to a window they’d previously staked out and Soos had set a clever tool behind for Dipper.

Dipper stopped when he saw the poorly disguised step stool that had a green blanket over it and the words ‘BUSH’ written on it in some lime green marker. “Really?”

He pulled the step stool over, grabbing the bag underneath, then climbing on it and through the window.

“Blue Falcon is in.” Dipper said quietly into his phone as he landed inside. “Uhh, so, Grunkle Stan-”

“Codenames.” He cut him off gruffly.

“... Macho Man. How do I do this exactly again...?” 

“Alright, so you use your supplies to make a trap for the security guard to fall into, block out all the cameras, take the security tape from the security room, and then let your accomplice, Princess Sparkle-Sword, in. That’s the easy part.”

“That’s the easy party?!”

“Come on, Blue Falcon,” Mabel said, “once I’m in it’ll be easy with the two of us! They won’t know what hit them!”

“Macho Man, why didn’t you come in to do this part then let Princess Sparkle-Sword and I in if it’s so easy.” 

“Because I didn’t give a museum a cursed object. Plus you’re small enough to fit in the vents. Over.” Stan answered.

“That was an accident!!” Dipper objected.

Ford spoke up. “Don’t beat yourself up, Blue Falcon, I’ve accidentally gifted much worse cursed objects.”

Stan’s voice was a bit quieter as he said. “Yeah, like a chest that-”

“I didn’t gift that, I just had that around. I was thinking about the matching face masks that wouldn’t come off.” Ford said. “Anyhow. Princess Sparkle-Sword, what is your position?”

“I’m cutting the wires now, Cosmos Man!”

“Blue Falcon, you will probably be wanting to take out those cameras if you don’t want to go to prison.” Ford said. “Or well, in this case, an awkward explanation.”

“Now, that’s the hard part. Breaking out of prison.” Stan said in fond memory.

“I’m going!” Dipper said, running down the halls and starting to spray out the cameras, glancing around for anyone,

“Don’t worry, Dipper. If you go to prison we WILL break you out!” Mabel assured him. “And we’ll use Waddles as an adorable vent crawler to bring you messages.”


	3. Fun Mysteries [Ford & Soos]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun Mysteries  
> Day 3. “you did this?”  
> Soos looks for feedback on his latest mystery shack creation from Ford.

Ford looked at the half squirrel, half fish figure with black wings. It was obviously fake, for several reasons, and frankly was yet another in a long line of displays that felt mocking to the very studies he used to research here. 

He was reigning back his initial feelings on the matter though because Soos was looking at him, waiting for his comment.

“Well, whatcha think, Dr. Pines?”

“You did this?”

“Yeah! I got a lotta practice for making the exhibits, but now that I’m like- heh, the actual Mr. Mystery...” Soos tapped his pointer fingers together. “I just want to be the best I can be.”

“Well- Yes, but you know. This is more Stanley’s field actually. Why don’t you show this to him? I’m sure he could give you better feedback.”

“I am, but I want to know what other people think too.” He said. “Plus, you’re some kind of science creature expert, and this is supposed to look like a mysterious creature!”

“Right...” Ford agreed.

“So... thoughts? Opinions? Moving feelings of wonder?” Soos asked hopefully, watching him.

“A lot of moving feelings.” Ford answered.

Soos smiled at that, even such a vague answer making him start beaming a bit, though he kept looking at Ford expectantly.

Ford lowered the monstrosity in his hand slightly to talk to him. “Soos, listen I just...”

Soos nodded his head happily with an encouraging expression.

“Well- I’m just- this sort of thing isn’t really-” Ford fumbled at a way to gently let the man child down. “I’ve just spent devoted years of my life to studying the odd and all of my early years had been centered around establishing solid proof of it to the world.”

The more winding his words became, the more the smile on Soos’ face lowered into something more confused and his eyebrows started to pull down - the man now clearly self conscious.

“Wh-which is why I’m so astounded because I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Ford declared quickly.

Soos immediately brightened right back up again. “Really?”

Ford looked again at the stuffed figurine in his hands which appeared to have oozed some kind of slime, and back. “Yes. Yes, really.”

“Woah.” Soos whispered, impressed. “What do you think about it?”

Ford lifted the stuffed figurine back up so he could appraise it again, putting aside the offended feelings these sort of displays generally incited in him.

“Well,” he said, “the connection between all the different parts is seamless. Not a stitch in sight... and where you put extra scales onto the fur makes it look like a naturally occurring transition.” Ford turned the figurine around, now actually admiring the handiwork even if it did look like it was oozing some kind of slime from its fish tail. “What is the slime for?”

“Oh.” Soos said. “Uh, I don’t know I was thinking how fish can be slippery and if it was slimy then it could slip out of stuff easier.”

“A lot of creatures have themselves covered in slime to protect themselves from both predators and environmental hazards of their habitat.” Ford said. “If you could attach the gills you could say the slime comes out of there.” It would make sense, in a way.

“Oh! What if I put the gills up here?” Soos asked, pointed at the neck piece of the faux squirrel piece.

“That would work!” Ford answered, smiling at Soos. “If the creature breathed in air, it would go down its neck and to its lungs, and if it breathed in water then it could exit there and absorb oxygen like a fish’s respiratory system.”

Again, Ford looked back at the stuffed creature, and could begin to imagine how such a creature might exist. It was a thought provoking exploration into the theoretical behaviors, and Ford actually found himself starting to like the figurine a little bit now.

It felt less like a spit in the face and more like... a fun, theoretical creation of something that could be. Even if his work had often been compared to these sorts of egregiously false claims of oddities, those comparisons were always meant to condescend rather than actually tie his academic papers to literal tourist attractions. Obvious exaggerated jokes simply meant to bully.

Besides, when something was this outlandish and surrounded entirely by all equally false things, really there was an unspoken pretense that none of it was real. It was all just for the sake of enjoyment.

“Soos. This is genuinely very creative.” Ford complimented sincerely. “You made something that can’t help but inspire thought provoking questions and wonder as to its own existence. This is actually... fun.” He put the figurine down on the counter gently and wiped the residue on his hands onto his pants legs. 

Soos shuffled in place, nervous again. “Ha, well. I gotta make it good, right?”

“Soos, it’s very good.” Ford assured him. “I don’t fully understand what my brother did as Mr. Mystery, but if it’s inspiring mystery and wonder then you are already doing an amazing job, Soos, and you don’t have to worry so much. Besides, if you could hear the way Stanley talks about you then you’d know he’s never doubted or regretted making you his successor.”

Tears were pricking at the edges of Soos’ eyes. Ford was worried that instead of easing Soos’ mind he had now inadvertently shovelled on some guilt or pressure. Then Soos burst into happy cries and pulled him into a hug. 


	4. Coup'ed Up [OC!Sam & OC!Mordecai]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coup'ed Up  
> Day 4. “that didn’t stop you before”  
> Ex vampire hunter, Sam, and current vampire leader, Mordecai, prepare to face a coup together.  
> (Original work/characters)

The pair slammed the heavy wooden door shut together, and in a rush brought down the metal bar to lock the door.

The wooden door nearly burst open from the impact from the other side, hinges creaking from the effort and the sound of splintering wood accompanying it.

Human and vampire both backed up, eyeing the temporary blockade.

“A coup? Since when did you have a coup?” Sam asked, already scanning around the stone lined room for exits.

The door thudded again and a loud bang brought her attention snapping back to see that Mordecai had thrown a nearby dresser in front of the door to help stop the quick progress from the other side.

“That’s the thing about coups, when you’re the one in power you don’t really know about them-” The door thudded, with less wood splintering this time, “about them ahead of time!”

Mordecai split away from the door and started going around the edges of the room. “They were in style for a long time, and only really went out of style with the leader before last.” 

Sam knew enough about vampire hierarchy and societal structure now to know that the peaceful approach to humanity wasn’t well-liked by every vampire, but she’d really assumed vampires opposed for the movement would just split off as loners or small covens. Then again, a coup made sense. In fact, judging by how well he was taking this, it likely wasn’t his first coup.

“Yeah, okay. Well, I’m not seeing anything here.” She said, now pressing around furniture pushed against the wall in hopes of some secret passage or wall. 

“I am, catch!”

Sam turned back from the wall and when she did Mordecai tossed the fire poker to her. She easily caught it, thin cast iron landing with a hefty weight in her hands. It was only about as long as her forearm and led right into a sharp spike at the end. She readjusted the fire poker to hold it by its wooden handle.

Mordecai was beside a small fire pit in the room, picking up another tool with two curved prongs on the end meant for scooping up burning logs. There was something odd about seeing a vampire pick up a weapon considering their claws, but it did probably give him advantage.

“It’s a narrow hallway, we won’t be able to get past them.” Sam told him quickly. 

“Yeah- Yeah, ah, no. No, we’re going to have to kill them.” He answered.

“What?”

The door thudded loudly, a distinct crack of wood and a split shooting down the middle of it now.

They turned towards the door, warily watching it and speaking quickly.

“Well, if they backed down, that would be great, but they won’t like this.” He said, weapon prepared and standing stiffly.

“I don’t kill vampires.” She muttered, half in disbelief, half hoping an alternative solution would provide itself.

“Actually, you were the expert on that.”

“I don’t  _ want  _ to kill anyone.”

“ _ Well, that didn’t stop you before _ .” His quick fire response came out bitter and sharp, and shut Sam up.

Another impact and the door nearly split open, a crack wide enough that they could now see to the other side and see flashes of the handful of vampires from the other side. One more push would break it open entirely.

Sam readied her weapon, heart pounding as she tried not to think too hard about what was about to happen. There wasn’t even a guarantee they’d survive, after all. She couldn’t let Mordecai die. Not when they were still recovering from the loss of the last vampire leader. Not when she’d been the one to kill the last leader, Mordecai’s friend.

“This is different.” Mordecai said in the quiet before the inevitable next crack of wood, and like he was granting permission. “It’s okay.” 

“I know.” Sam said. It was different. It wasn’t okay, but it was different.


	5. Unyielding Expectations [Kid Stan Twins & Pa]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unyielding Expectations  
> Day 5. “unacceptable, try again”  
> Pa pushes his kids in boxing and schoolwork.  
> (cw for jerk parenting)

Ford didn’t hate boxing. Now that he’d been in boxing a few years, he liked it. It was honestly fun and half the time he actually felt pretty good with himself. It was the other half of the time that was the problem, because the other half of the time Pa was there. Sometimes Ford could ignore him, and with Stan nearby it was easier to ignore Pa’s critical and unimpressed gaze.

Today, everyone had been separated into smaller sets, each around a small square mat. Stan was in the group a few mats over, but Pa was near Ford along with someone’s teenage relative. On the bright side, he at least knew by this point that Pa would look disappointed regardless if Ford glanced over at him in acknowledgment or not.

So, Ford just ignored him.

Ford lost a round against another boy, then another round against him, and that match. Nothing that out of the ordinary.

Then he lost another match with another boy, barely getting a couple punches in at all. Still wasn’t his worse, but he was acutely aware that Pa was still nearby. 

Third time’s the-

Ford swerved, face first, right into the other kid’s gloved fist and saw flashes. In a spectacular display, he fell backwards with flailing arms. He caught himself on the edge of the mat, narrowly keeping his head from hitting the stone floor. 

The room spun, and he pushed himself up into a sitting position, still stunned.

Round 1. To the... uhh boy with green shorts and hair who looked a lot clearer about thirty seconds ago.

Ford heard a familiar, scoff behind him. 

He glanced over, gut sinking to see Pa  _ scowling _ .

“Unacceptable, try again.” He told him gruffly. 

Ford pushed himself back up again, trying not to stumble, physically feeling how Pa loathed every slip and stumble he made now. He put his gloves up.

* * *

Pa usually didn’t spend one on one time with him, and sometimes that made Stan a little sad. Because it just seemed like... he didn’t know, maybe Pa would rather read some boring newspapers than play with him or anything unless it was for the pawn shop.

Getting one one one attention from Pa never happened. Until now. Until the principle had called home to tell Pa that Stan was dangerously close to failing third grade.

Stan swung his feet back and forth nervously, looking down at the piece of paper, lost. 

“Quit doing that.” Pa said.

Stan reluctantly stopped, face scrunching up as he stared down at the homework - willing to try anything to make it make sense.

“Well, are you gonna solve it or not?” Pa asked him impatiently. 

“I don’t know how though!” 

“I already showed you twice. What part aren’t you getting?”

“Uh...” Stan paused, trying to think. “All of it?”

“No excuses. Solve it.  _ Now _ .” 

“Okay.” Stan looked back down at the paper, uncertainly holding the pencil in his hand. He started writing, multiplying and- dividing? That’s how fractions worked, right? Yeah, yeah, dividing.

Finishing, he pushed the paper towards Pa for him to see. 

He looked at it, pushing his fingers underneath his glasses to pinch at his nose in palpable irritation. Then he took a pencil and crossed out all of Stan’s work. “Unacceptable. Try again.” He said, pushing the paper back to Stan.

“How do I-”

Pa roughly grabbed the paper, pulling it back again. “I’m showing you one more time, and after that I don’t want to hear that crap again. We are going to sit here until you get something through your stupid skull, got it?” 

Not saying anything, Stan stiffly nodded. He paid attention. He tried. He focused as hard as he could as Pa went through another problem, and tried to make it work in his head. 

It didn’t work. He couldn’t make it work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh i wish i had time to explore this further bc the Real Heavy Bits come from Pa KEEPING ON the kids about this stuff. so pa not laying off ford about being weak and stan about being stupid, but also writing eleven year olds getting /unrelentingly/ slammed especially from a parent is just not my ideal angst writing.


	6. Inalienable Optimism [OC!Mordecai & OC!Sam]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inalienable Optimism   
> Day 6. “that was impressive”  
> Inner thoughts of Mordecai, vampire lord, as he faces a coup with numbers against him.

Mordecai didn’t know if he could consider himself an optimist. He guessed he had to be one. He believed they could change their world from out of earthy tombs and hidden crypts. Despite himself being the one at the lead, he did still believe there was a chance for it. That was a lot more than most other vampires believed could happen.

He definitely had to be an optimist when he stated that they were going to have to kill the nine vampires after him that were close to breaking through the barricade he’d made. Nine vampires against one vampire and one human. 

Nine vampires that had explicitly come here to kill him.

Yeah, he had to be an optimist. 

Sam, though human, used to kill vampires for a living though. Sure, she hadn’t killed any for... two, three years now? Something had to stick though, right? If he could have picked anyone- If he could have picked any human to help him in this fight, Sam would have been higher up on the list.

Mordecai himself though. He wasn’t a newborn vampire with the self destructive strength and he wasn’t old enough for that to give him much of an advantage. He just didn’t have much of an advantage. 

Besides the optimism, for the lack of a better word. And a fire poker.

When he managed to kill two of them himself, his optimism grew. Seven against two wasn’t as daunting.  
When the fire poker was torn away, his optimism stayed.   
When his arms were stretched away from him and pulled, he really didn’t think he could call it optimism anymore when he felt sure he was dead, but it stayed.

Metal stabbed, through the body in front of him though, and again through the body to his right and he pulled himself from from the hold on his left.

Through the pain, he watched as Sam sliced and weaved around the rest of the vampires. Fast. Sudden. More efficient than any machine. She disposed of them all in a matter of seconds, ash falling and clouding the air. 

Mordecai half kneeled on the floor, dropped backwards to sit down with flesh and clothes still burning to ash in piles in front of him, the smell thick in the air and overwhelming.

Sam panted, blood pounding distractingly loud, and stayed still aside from the rise of her shoulders with her breathing.

His wounds gradually stopped bleeding, severe injuries feeling less life threatening, it would take a while for the pain to subside.

Belatedly, he said. “That was impressive.”


End file.
